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SPEECH 



HON. GEO. E. PUGH, OF OHIO. 



ON THE 



ACQUISITION OF CUBA. 



DELIVERED IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, FEBRUARY 10, 1859, 



The Senate having tinder consideration the bill to facilitate the acquisition of the Island 
of Cuba— Mr. PUGH said: 

Mr President : In proceeding to consider the question whether Cuba ought to 
be annexed to the United States, I am not unmindful of the earnest declaration 
made by the Senator from Virginia, (Mr. Mason,) that the enlargement of our 
domain, for the -purpose of enlargement only, is an unwise policy, and of danger- 
ous consequence. AVhether I should or should not agree with him, in this re- 
gard, is immaterial at present ; no such enlargement has been, or ever was, se- 
riously proposed. We have in the United States a people energetic and ambitious 
to the last degree ; and our youth will not be restrained from those fields of en- 
terprise in which others have failed, but in which they are confident of success. 
You may enact laws and elaborate treaties and deliver maxims and issue procla- 
mations; you may send navies and armies whithersoever you will; but my word 
for it, Senators, when you undertake to stay the path of man's conquest over the 
material world — over the wastes of the land or the wastes of the sea> — when you 
undertake to fortify sloth or imbecility or barbarism, against the inroads of indus- 
try, courage, and civilization — whether in Cuba, or Mexico, or Central America, 
or anywhere else — you undertake a vain and a fruitless task. If our system of 
government be not adequate for such emergencies ; if it should ever be placed in 
antagonism to the generation which, with pulses warmer and quicker than inspire 
us, with genius more exalted than we can boast, with zeal too heroic for our com- 
prehension, now presses forward to the places we fill to-day, and soon must drive 
us from the scenes of action ; then, as certainly as the day pursues the night, will 
grander and nobler systems of government be inaugurated in its stead. The wis- 
dom of our time, the duty to which we have been called, is to avoid such an- 
tagonism, and to adapt, by well-ordered amendments, not only our legislation, but 
our general policy, to the necessities of our children ; that so, after we shall have 
forsaken these places, these honors, and these cares, and gone to our last repose, 
the Constitution and the Union in Avhich we now rejoice, with the splendid or- 
ganization of States thereby represented, glorious in the achievements of the past 
and the energies of the present and the hopes of the future, will remain securely 
established forever. 

The boundaries of the United States have been extended, Mr. President, on 
four memorable occasions — by the acquisition of Louisiana, of Florida, of Texas, 
and of New Mexico and California. But, sir, besides these, every admission of a 
new State is, and must needs be, an extension of our system of government. On 
the 30th of April, 1789, when our first President entered upon his first term of 
administration, the embassadors of eleven sovereignties were summoned to the 
spectacle ; when we followed the Senator from Virginia, as our presiding officer, 
to the eastern access of the Capitol, on the 4th of March, 1857, we represented 
thirty-one sovereignties ; and since that time — since we installed Mr. Buchanan 

Printed by Lemuel Towers. • , • . 



2 FV78-3 

in the presidential chair — Minnesota has been added to the number. We can 
wisely decide, therefore, on the experience of more than half a century, as to the 
effect of extending our Federal system. There is no man, probably, within the 
sound of my voice, who does not now acknowledge (whatever he may have said 
heretofore) that the fate of our republican institutions, our independence, and our 
prosperity, was involved in the contest between John Adams and Thomas Jeffer- 
son for the administration of the executive department. That contest was decided 
by the votes of States admitted after the Constitution had been adopted. Adams 
triumphed over Jefferson, in December, 1796, by three votes, and Jefferson over 
Adams, in December, 1800, by eight votes. But Jefferson received the votes of 
Kentucky and Tennessee; and, upon his second election, in December, 1804, the 
vote of Ohio. The subsequent triumphs of Madison and Monroe, candidates of 
the ancient and genuine Republican party, were secured by the accession to the 
Union of Louisiana, Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, and Maine— as the 
triumph of the Democratic Republican party, since that time, has been secured by 
the accession of other new States. The problem of our destiny, as a nation, was 
solved by the reelection of James Monroe, in December, 1820. A country so 
extensive as the United States, even at the period of our independence, with in- 
terests so widely diversified, never can be subject to a consolidated government : 
it requires a Confederacy, limited to the regulation of those affairs which all the 
States have in common, and excluded from everything else. Herein, at length, 
was manifest the wisdom of that Constitution our fathers had ordained; and 
slowly above the world's horizon, above the clouds and the mists which obscured 
its rising, appeared a new constellation ; of stars equal and separate in glory, but 
of glory also in common; various in design, but of kindred influence; alike in 
movement, and therefore in effect ; a constellation which now enlightens the whole 
western hemisphere, and calls to its adoration the hearts of such as love liberty 
everywhere on the habitable earth — I mean, sir, the constellation of our im- 
perial Republic. 

Let us not be timid, nor ''too tardy, in pursuing the path trodden by the wisest 
of our predecessors. With such boundaries as we have, at present, no mere lust 
of dominion ought to be encouraged or tolerated ; but only as the necessities of 
our people, require, from time to time, should the confines of the Union be en- 
larged. This rule is a safe one ; it is one easily observed, as well as defended, be- 
cause it is the law of our national growth and development. If the acquisition 
of Cuba be within this rule, as I shall endeavor to show, our duty and our interest 
alike demand that we should omit no reasonable endeavor toward its accomplish- 
ment. To frustrate such an enterprise on account of sectional, or partisan, or 
personal considerations, would be to degrade our country from the high position 
Avhich she now occupies. 

The Island of Cuba extends almost from the seventy-third meridian of longitude 
west from Greenwich, to the eighty-fifth meridian, and lies between the tropic of 
Cancer and the nineteenth parallel of north latitude. Its area is thirty-four thous- 
and two hundred and thirty-three square miles; that of its principal dependency, 
the Isle of Pines, eight hundred and ten square miles ; and that of other depen- 
dencies (small islands) nine hundred and seventy square miles. It is almost as 
large, therefore, as the State of Ohio, and larger than the State of Indiana. The 
richness of its soil, the luxuriance of its agricultural production, its genial climate, 
the wondrous beauty of its hills, rivers, woods, and plains, attracted the admira- 
tion of Columbus on his first voyage of discovery ; and supposing this to be a part 
of the Asiatic continent, he mistook it for the kingdom of Cathay, described, half 
in fable and half in fact, by the elder geographers and travelers. Since that time, 
the capacities and resources of Cuba have been ascertained to be greater than 
those of any region, of equal extent, upon the globe. The staples of exportation, 
at present, are sugar, coffee, cigars, tobacco in leaf, molasses, honey, and wax ; 
these being so profitable, in late years, as almost entirely to exclude cotton, indigo, 
wheat, hemp, flax, and the produce of the vine. 

It has been shown to us, by the reports of the Committees on Foreign Relations, 
n the Senate and in the House, that free commerce between Cuba and the United 

& &. 6"**t5ln • . t' . -^__ CM 9aa 



3 

States is now an absolute necessity for both ; that, upon the immense quantities of 
sugar and molasses imported thence^ annually, we pay an export duty to the Span- 
ish Government as well as an import duty to our own • that, on the other hand, 
the stores of meat and breadstuff's exported from all our Northwestern States, 
through New Orleans, and along the very shores of Cuba, cannot find admittance 
there, because of discriminating duties against us, levied by Spain, amounting to 
nearly or quite one hundred per cent. These considerations are of vital interest 
to the people whom I have the honor to represent, and are alone sufficient, in my 
estimation, to require that the Government of the United States should tolerate 
no obstacle, whether of diplomacy or even of war, between us and a reciprocal 
interchange of production. 

The aggregate of taxation directly imposed on foreign sugar and molasses, con- 
sumed in the United States, during the last year, as shown by the report of the 
House committee, is 86,346,184 ; and the enhanced price of Louisiana sugar and 
molasses, caused by the duty of twenty-four per cent, on importations, amounts to 
an additional taxation .(indirect) of almost two millions more. This, in a year of 
magnificent crops at home, is what we pay for the production, in Louisiana, of 
one hundred and seventy-five thousand tons of sugar, or (say) fifteen to eighteen 
millions of dollars in value. If the Government of the United States be "under 
obligation to " protect" the planters of Louisiana, by insuring them a specific price 
for sugar annually, how much more sensible would it be to adopt, at once, the 
policy of Holland toward her colonists in Java, purchasing the entire crop, 'each 
year, and reselling even at a loss of three or four millions I That would save the 
consumers one half, at least, of the burden now imposed. 

I have noticed in several newspapers an appeal to Congress for the taxation of 
tea and coffee. Sir, those articles are taxed already, and taxed enough. AVhat 
difference to the man who would drink a cup of tea or of coffee, whether 
he pays twelve per cent, on the tea or the coffee, and twelve per cent, on the sugar 
with which it is made palatable, or pays twenty-four per cent, on the sugar alone? 
On the other hand, as sugar is only produced by the labor of slaves, and we 
have forbidden the importation of slaves from abroad, while the African slave 
trade as well as the Chinese slave trade flourish in Cuba, it has been fairly argued 
that as we have increased the price of slave labor in Louisiana, by legislation* for 
reasons of wise and humane policy, we ought not to reward the inhumanity, the 
bad faith, and the turpitude of the Spanish authorities in Cuba, by an equal access 
to our markets. The way to avoid this alternative— to be just toward Louisiana 
and toward the consumers of sugar— is to annex the Island of Cuba to the United 
States, and thus bring it within the operation of our laws for the suppression of 
the slave trade. 

But sugar is not the only article in regard to which an inequality of trade with 
Cuba exists. On all exportation^ except cigars, there is a discrimination of thirty- 
three to one hundred per cent, against us. In the report on Commercial Relations, 
volume 3, page 127, it is said: 

;^'o* POl T'~n y J he - ta I iff ? f 184V ' sll S ar in forei g n bottoms pays 37| cents a box; in Span- 
ffin_2o cents. Coffee in foreign bottoms pays 20 cents a bag; in Spanish 12 cents. Tobacco 
lH.fore.gb. bottoms pays $1.50 per one hundred ponnds; in Spanish 75 cents. Cigars (no 
discrimination) 50 cents per thousand. Gold of every description exported in foreign bot- 
toms to foreign or Spanish ports, two and a quarter per cent, on valuation of $16 ner°ounce- 
to Spanish ports in Spanish vessels, nothing. Silver of any description, in foreign pr Spanish 
bottoms to any foreign ports, three and a quarter per cent, on valuation of $16 Her pound- 
to Spanish ports in foreign or Spanish vessels, nothing! All other produce eWrfta to 
foreign ports pays on the valuation seven and a quarter per cent, in foreign vessels and 
cent bala'zf X ° SpamS ' 1; t0 S P aniah P orts in S P auish yeS8el8 > thl " e e P«r cent, and one per 

lofl?K Vir1 T 0f , the .^°y a ? ordei :> before mentioned, of November 3, 1850, (published here 
19th December of said year, and which began jba be enforced in respect to exportations «n 
1st .,anuary, 1851,) the following additional duty is levied upon exported pro. nice- 50 
cents per box of sugar; 25 cents per one hundred pounds of tobacco, or per thousand of 

Turning from exports to imports in Cuba, the discrimination is ever more re- 
markable. Thus, on page 126 of the same report, I find : 



"The last tariff for imports and exports of the Island of Cuba commenced to be enforced 
in 1847. The import duties on articles of every description are levied upon a fixed average 
value of the articles in the island. The valuation is specified in the tariff. Foreign mer- 
chandise in foreign bottoms pay^some twenty-seven and a half per cent.; others thirty-three 
and a half per cent.; foreign merchandise in Spanish bottoms, from foreign ports, some nine- 
teen and a half per cent., others twenty-three and a half per cent. Fine jewelry is excepted; 
if foreign, coming in foreign bottoms, it pays seven and a half per cent; if in Spanish bot- 
toms, five and a half per cent. Spanish jewelry, coming either in Spanish or foreign vessels, 
pays only three and a half per cent. The same rates of nineteen and a half per cent, and 
twenty-three and a half per cent., are levied upon foreign merchandise coming from the 
peninsular in Spanish bottoms. Spanish goods coming in foreign vessels, pays some fourteen 
and a half per cent., others seventeen and a half per cent. All Spanish productions or 
manufactures, (with the exception of jewelry, as above stated.) that come in Spanish vessels, 
pay seven and a half per cent." 

And now comes (page 127) a paragraph well worthy of attention: 

"The above does not include flour, which, by virtue of several royal orders, pays the fol- 
lowing rates: 

Spanish flour in Spanish bottoms. .$2 OOper barrel. 

Spanish flour in foreign bottoms. 6 00 " " 

Foreign flour in foreign bottoms 9 50 " " 

Foreign flour in Spanish bottoms 8 50 " " 

"All flour pays, besides, two per cent, on the valuation of $12 50 per barrel, and one per 
cent, balanza. 

"Subsequently, one half per cent, was added upon all imports; and still later, (19th De- 
cember, 1850, by virtue of a royal order, dated 3d November, of same year,) an additional 
increase was laid on, to last for two years, of one and a half per cent, on valuation of all 
foreign imports, and one seventh to be charged over and above the amount to that lime paid 
on Spanish imports. This increase was to cover certain necessities of the Goverement. The 
two years went by long ago; the necessity may have passed; but the additional percentage 
is still exacted." 

It thus appears that every barrel of flour imported from the United States is 
valued at $12 50 for the purposes of taxation, and is taxed $10 85. Accordingly, 
in 1851, there were imported into Cuba only two thousand one hundred and 
two and a half barrels of flour, of the value of $26,281 25, on which duties 
to the amount of $20,704 86 were levied. (Commercial Relations, vol. 3, 
page 128.) 

The valuation of $12 50 per barrel seems to have been adopted for thepurpose 
of avoiding the effect of our treaties with Spain; a species of refined iniquity like 
the "home" valuation" often proposed to us, but happily repudiated from our first 
tariff act until the present time. 

When you consider that the United States hold, geographically, toward Cuba, 
the relation of the nearest exporter of flour, this practical exclusion of us from 
her market, by such a discrimination of duties, cannot be otherwise than unjust 
and offensive in the last degree. Nor is it an accidental injustice : it is part of 
that policy which Spain has pursued toward us whenever, and as often as she 
could find an opportunity or excuse. In the report on Commercial Relations, vol. 
3, page 131, the compiler says: 

"I find, on a critical examination of the whole Spanish tariff, embracing three thousand 
and sixty-one articles, a discrimination to the prejudice of the United States in all cases 
■where the interests of the consumers and Government here do not compel a contrary course ; 
and, for example, in the following manner, whereby to escape observation and the charge 
of unfair treatment: handkerchiefs of cotton, for duty, assessed at thirty-five and a half per 
©ent, and one per cent, balance on valuation ; while, of all other material, and of expensive 
fabrics not made in, or of products of the United States, they are assessed at twenty-nine and 
a half per cent., and one per eent balance on valuation." 

The same page indicates fully the extent of all this injustice: 

SUMMARY.' 

Duties paid at the ports of the Island of Cuba by vessels of all nations, in- 
cluding cargoes by same • • $8,873,086 62 

Duties paid by vessels of the United States, with their cargoes, and including 

other fees, tonnage, light, and mud-machine dues 8,338,120 91 

Difference $5,534,965 71 



Commercial movement of Cuba with the world , $57,234,178 93f 

Commercial movement of Cuba with the United States 18,663,553 98 



Difference $38,570,624 951 



The commerce of Cuba with the United States, as here shown, bears about the 
proportion of one third of all her commerce ; and yet on that third, $18,663,553 98, 
we pay three fifths, $3,338,120 91, of all the duties. 

But, sir, the geographical position of Cuba, without reference to any other fact, 
is enough to decide the whole question. Remember that Cuba lies in the very 
gorge of the Gulf of Mexico ; that no vessel can enter, or find exit, until she has 
passed the guns of Spanish fleets and forts ; that the nation which controls Ha- 
vana, now and henceforth and forever, must hold our immense property, as well as 
the lives of our citizens and the honor of our flag, at its own discretion. The 
most truthful and famous of travelers, Alexander Humboldt, has described this in 
language at once glowing and accurate : 

"That northern portion of the sea of the Antilles known as the Gulf of Mexico, forms a 
circular bay of more than two hundred and fifty leagues diameter: as it were, a mediterra- 
nean with two outlets, whose coasts, from Cape Florida to Cape Catoche, in Yucatan, apper- 
tain exclusively, at the present time, to the Confederations of the Mexican States and of 
North America. The Island of Cuba, or, more properly speaking, that part of its shore 
between Cape San Antonio and the City of Matanzas, situate near the entrance of the 
old Bahama channel, closes the Gulf of Mexico on the southeast, leaving to the oceanic cur- 
rent we call the Gulf Stream, no other passages than a strait on the south, between Cape 
San Antonio and Cape Catoche, and the Bahama channel on the north, between Bahia Honda 
and the reefs of Florida, 

" Near the northern outlet, and immediately where a multitude of highways thronging 
with the commerce of the world cross each other, lies the beautiful port of Havana — strongly 
defended by nature, and still more strongly fortified by art. Fleets sailing from this port, 
built in part of the cedar and mahogany of Cuba, may defend the passages to the Ameri- 
can mediterranean, and menace the opposite coasts, as the fleets sailing from Cadiz may hold 
the dominion of the ocean near the columns of Hercules. The Gulf of Mexico and the old 
and new Bahama channels unite under the meridian of Havana." 

On the 3d of September, 1783, when Great Britain acknowledged the indepen- 
dence of the United States by definitive treaty, Spain had exclusive dominion of 
the Gulf of Mexico, and because she owned the entire coast from the Cape of Flor- 
ida to the Cape of Yucatan ; her possession of Cuba, at that time, was altogether 
appropriate. On the 30th of April, 1803, the United States acquired Louisiana, 
from the Perdido river to the Rio Grande, by treaty with France — to which power 
Spain had ceded the province three years before — and thus acquired an interest 
in the Gulf of Mexico and its commerce. On the 22d of February, 1819, Spain 
ceded to us, by treaty, the provinces of East and West Florida; and obtained from 
us, in part recompense, the country between the Rio Grande and the Sabine river. 
Very soon afterwards, Mexico established her independence, and Spain ceased to 
be the owner of a single inch of the Gulf coast. 

Texas separated from Mexico in 1836, asserting, and successfully maintaining, 
independence. In December, 1845, she was annexed to the United States; and 
in February, 1848, Mexico ceded to us all claim on Texas, westward to the Rio 
Grande, as well as the provinces of New Mexico and Upper California. In the 
same year (1848) Yucatan asserted her independence; since which time, that 
province never has been subdued by Mexico, but has gradually relapsed into bar- 
barism. 

The present condition of the Mexican Republic — and, indeed, her condition for 
the last eleven years — is that of anarchy, retrogression, aud ultimate ruin. With- 
out regard, therefore, to our duties imposed by the acquisition of California and 
the colonization of the Pacific coast — involving, as those duties must, the care of 
the Tehuantepec isthmus, and all inter-oceanic routes — the United States have a 
greater interest in the Gulf of Mexico than any other nation. Why, therefore, 
should Spain command us in that quarter? She has no longer a colony on the 
Gulf coast, nor does she contribute anything to its commerce. The possession of 
New Orleans by France, in 1800, was not as objectionable as the possession of 
Cuba by Spain has now become. It is a possession by mere strictness of title, and 



6 

without any reason or equitable consideration. What would be our decision, or 
that of any candid man, to-day, if Spain had repeatedly endeavored to purchase 
Gibraltar from Great Britain; and finding all such overtures rejected, while the 
retention of that fortress by a foreign power constantly endangered the peace and 
welfare of her people, should deliver herself, nobly, at the point of the sword? 
And yet Spain has not a case of such merit in regard to Gibraltar, as we now pre- 
sent in regard to Cuba; for Spain is not alone interested in the commerce of the 
Mediterranean sea, and holds only a small share of its coast; whereas, we owj> 
the Gulf of Mexico, practically, and are entitled to the key which locks and un- 
locks it. 

There is another fact worthy of the utmost consideration. While Spain thus 
controls at mercy, and without any reason, the commerce and the necessary de- 
fence of our western and southern States; while she violates (as I have shown) 
all the obligations of comity and fair intercourse between neighbors, it is, never- 
theless, impossible for us to avoid relations with her. The winds and the waves 
continually complicate the difficulties caused by her position toward us. Vessels 
engaged in the trade of the Gulf, sailing to or from Galveston, New Orleans, Mo- 
bile, or Pensacola, are often compelled to seek refuge in the ports of Cuba, or be 
wrecked upon its shore; and often, in such cases,, the gravest outrage is perpe- 
trated by the Spanish authorities — outrage on the law of hospitality acknowledged 
by all nations ; outrage caused, nine times in ten, by sheer wantonness and malice. 
Cuba has no constitutional, or even responsible, government; neither the inhabi- 
tants of the island nor foreigners, whether sojourning there from choice or neces- 
sity, have the least safeguard of liberty, property, or right. The' will of the Cap- 
tain General is the law for Cuba in all cases — a Spanish soldier sent to repair his 
broken fortunes at the expense of the people over whom he tyrannizes. He ap- 
points the judges and ministerial officers; he can remove any of them at pleasure. 
To describe such oppression, in every detail, is a task beyond my abilities; I adopt, 
therefore, the words of one who has been its, victim: 

"In the first place, Cuba is not, by far, a Government that can be tolerated by any civilized 
nation. It is rather a focus of outlaws, the present Captain General having been once de- 
clared a Iraitor, and condemned to death in Spain, which wishes to keep far off such conta- 
gion, while she is robbing and killing through the orders of the aforesaid Governor, invested 
with the arbitrary powers of suspending any judge that does not follow the programme 
formed by himself in regard to any individual, either a Cuban, a citizen of the United States, 
or English, or French. 

"The present system of administration is : the Captain General addresses the highest tri- 
bunal, declaring that such a man is a filibuster, and deserving imprisonment. This order the 
tribunal obeys, and then three or four men are selected by the Governor from amongst his 
own people, to attest that he has spoken in favor of annexation, or he is accused of secreting 
arms for revolutionary purposes, which arms, probably, have been placed in their hiding 
places by the minions of the accuser himself. In case the judges do not obey, they are sus- 
pended, as was the case when the}' gave sentence in'favor of Mr. Embil, who opposed the 
robbing of some of his property. Seven judges of the inferior and superior courts were sus- 
pended. 

"Such an awful state of affairs, which exposes daily the property and lives of citizens of 
every nation, cannot be tolerated or accepted as legitimate, when it is really a farce on 
justice." 

It is no matter of astonishment consequently that from year to year, and almost 
from month to month, we have serious complaint of injuries committed in Cuba 
to the persons and property of our citizens. But, sir, what avail such complaints? 
They cannot be preferred to the Captain General; because, although his power of 
mischief and offence is unlimited, he has no power of redress. They must be pre- 
ferred to the Court of Spain; transmitted thence to Havana for investigation, and 
returned to Madrid for argument and decision. Thus, while the most flagrant out- 
rages have been committed at our very doors — outrages from the occurrence of 
which our citizens could not even guard themselves — such as have spught redress 
(and few ever found that worth their while) were compelled to seek it on the other 
side of the world, and after having traversed the ocean, backward and forth seve- 
ral times, until fortune and health and patience became exhausted, to abandon 
the attempt as altogether hopeless. Truly, as the House committee has said, our 
list of claims against Spain, of this description, resembles the docket of prosecu- 



tions In some county court; except, indeed, that we have no reasonable prospect 
cJf judgment, or even trial. 

While I shall vote for this Bill, and especially with some restriction as to the 
amount which may be tendered, I am not sanguine of success in the negotiation; 
but when that shall have failed, or been refused, another dut}' awaits the Presi- 
dent as well as ourselves. It is to notify Spain that she must arm the Captain 
General of Cuba with diplomatic powers; that no further complaint will be made, 
by the United States at the Court of Madrid, on account of outrages committed 
under his jurisdiction ; that, upon the next occasion of serious injury to our citizens 
in Cuba, redress will be demanded on the spot, and exacted, if need be, at the 
cannon's mouth. 

In this, sir, we should only imitate the example of James Madison and his sup- 
porters, in Congress, when Spain pursued towards us, in regard to Florida, the 
same policy which she now pursues in regard to Cuba. 
Resolution and act relative to occupation of the Floridas by the United States of America. 

Taking into view the peculiar situation of Spain and her American provinces, and consid- 
ering the influence which the destiny of the territory adjoining the southern border of the 
United States may have upon their security, tranquillity, and commerce: Therefore, 

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in 
Congress assembled, That the United States, under the peculiar circumstances of the existing 
crisis, cannot, without serious inquietude, see any part of the said territory pass into the hands 
of any foreign power, and that a due regard to their own safetv compels them to provide, under 
certain contingencies, for the temporary occupation of the said territory; they, at the same 
time, declare, that the said territory, shall, in their hands, remain subject to future negotiation. 

Approved, January 15, 1811. 

An act to enable the President of the United States, under certain contingencies, to take 

possession of the country lying eest of the river Perdido, and south of the State of 

Georgia and the Mississippi Territory, and for other purposes. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of Amer- 
ica in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States be, and he is hereby, au- 
thorized to take possession of, and occupy all, or any part of the territory lying east of the 
river Perdido, and south of the State of Georgia and the Mississippi Territory, in case an ar- 
rangement has been or shall be made with the local authority of said territory for delivering 
up the possession of the same or any part thereof, to the United States; or, in event of an 
attempt to occupy the said territory, or any part thereof, by any foreign Government; and 
he may, for the purpose of taking possession and occupying the territory aforesaid, and in 
order to maintain therein the authority of the United States, employ any part of the Army 
or K"avy of the United States which may be necessary. 

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That §100.000 be appropriated for defraying such ex- 
penses as the President may deem necessary for obtaining possession as aforesaid, and the 
security of the said territory, to be applied, under the direction of the President, out of any 
money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated. 

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That in case possession of the territory aforesaid shall 
be obtained by the United States, as aforesaid, that, until other provision be made by Con- 
gress, the President be, and he is hereby, authorized to establish within the territory afore- 
said a temporary government, and the military, civil, and judicial powers thereof shall be 
vested in such person or persons, and be executed in such manner, as he may direct, for the 
protection and maintenance of the inhabitants of the said territory, in the full enjoyment of 
their liberty, property, and religion. 

Approved, January 15, 1811. 

This act and the resolution which accompanied it, were not published for almost 
two years; Congress having so directed in the act of March 3, 1811, at the same 
session. Clearly, then, no menace was intended, but an effectual provision for the 
redress of injuries and the public defence. The next Congress adopted a similar 
act for West Florida: 

An act authorizing the President of the United States to take possession of a tract of country 
lying south of the Mississippi Territory and west of the river Perdido. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America 
in Congress assembled, That the President be, and he is hereb}*, authorized to occupy and 
hold all that tract of country called West Florida, which lies west of the river Perdido, and 
now in possession of the United States. 

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That for the purpose of occupying and holding the coun- 
try aforesaid, and of affording protection to the inhabitants thereof, under the authority of 
the United States, the President may employ such parts of the military and naval force 
of the United States as he may deem necessary. 



8 

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That, for defraying the necessary expenses, $20,000 is 
hereby appropriated out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, and to 
be applied for that purpose under the direction of the President. 

Approved, February 12, 1813. 

Such proceedings are not only in accordance with the law of nations, but with 
that law of nature which defines the rights of men everywhere, in barbarous as in 
civilized countries. It is the measure exacted of us by Great Britain, when the 
steamer Caroline was seized on our own shore, at midnight, drawn into the cur- 
rent, and fired ; like some gorgeous sacrificial pageant, an Iphigenia colossal as 
the deity to whom she had been devoted, speeding to the inexorable abyss of Ni- 
agara. 

The letter of Lord Ashburton to Mr. Webster, July 28, 1842, contains this re- 
markable sentence : 

"Self-defence is the first law of our nature, and it must be recognized by every code 
which proposes to regulate the conditions and relations of man." 

Having narrated the circumstances at length, Lord Ashburton said : 

"The force, formed of all the reckless and mischievous people of the border, formidable 
from their numbers and from their armament, had in their pay, and as part of their estab- 
lishment, this steamboat Caroline, the important means and instrument by which numbers 
and arms were hourly increasing. I might safely put it to any candid man acquainted with 
the existing state of things, to say whether the military commander in Canada had the 
remotest reason, on the 29th of December, to expect to be relieved from this state of suffering 
by the protective intervention of any American authority ? How long could a government, 
having the paramount duty of protecting its own people, be reasonably expected to wait for 
what they had no reason to expect? What would have been the conduct of American 
officers? What has been their conduct under circumatances much less aggravated? I would 
appeal to you, sir, to say whether the facts, which you say would alone justify this act, 
namely : a necessity of self-defence, instant, overwhelming, leaving no choice of means, and 
no moment for deliberation, were not applicable to this case in as high a degree as they ever 
were to any case of a similar description in the history of nations." 

Our Government acknowledged the doctrines here professed ; and, by their ap- 
plication to the case, Great Britain became absolved of all liability and censure. 
But, sir, the Caroline was not so much an instrument of mischief to the British 
authorities in Canada as the mere possession of Cuba by Spain is now to us. We 
cannot avoid Cuba in any manner ; it is there, at the entrance of the Gulf, com- 
manding all access and escape ; and it must either belong to us, or, at least, be so 
governed as not to give us continual uneasiness. No man, and therefore no na- 
tion, has any right to retain a cause of injury at the door of a neighbor, without 
having there, also, immediately at hand, the means of precaution and redress. 
" When thou buildest a new house," said the law of Moses, " then thou shalt make 
a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house, if any man 
fall trom thence." ' (Deuteronomy, xxii. 8.) How much more does it behove 
Spain, holding the Island of Cuba by a formal title, contrary to the wishes of the 
people over whom that title is maintained, to avoid the injustice which she has 
exercised, thus far, toward the persons and the property of our citizens ? 

That the people of Cuba — and I do not include, by this, the municipal dignita- 
ries in Havana or elsewhere, appointed bwthe Captain General — that the people 
of Cuba really desire annexation to the United States, I have no doubt. To allege 
that they are contented with the present system, is not only to confess ignorance 
of their condition and history for the last ten or twelve years, but to deny them all 
the characteristics of manhood. Neither in Cuba, nor anywhere else, on this or the 
other side of the Atlantic, can there be found an individual of the Caucasian race 
who does not aspire, in his heart of hearts, to some participation in the Govern- 
ment under which he lives, its powers, its honors, its emoluments, as well as en- 
deavor to attain the security of his person and possessions. If the people of Cuba 
are so well satisfied, why does Spain consume almost the entire revenue of the 
island, annually, for the maintenance of twenty-five thousand soldiers, not to men- 
tion officers of the civil list, spies, detectives, and the like ? It is a larger army 
than we require for the defence of our vast boundaries and the subjugation of all 
our Indian tribes. 

There is no argument for union between Cuba and Spain except community of 



blood. That did not prove sufficient in Mexico, nor in Central or South. America ; 
it did not restrain our colonial ancestors, although of English descent, when the 
time for revolution arrived. 

Cuba could not, if she would, maintain her existence as an independent nation. 
Texas tried that for eight or nine years, and failed. In every respect, therefore, 
the proximity and natural relations of Cuba are such as to demand, for her sake 
and our own, that she should be annexed to the United States. 

The Senator from New Hampshire (Mr. Hale) asserts that for us to acquire 
Cuba, even by means of purchase, would be an act of gross injustice toward 
Spain ; which argument he founded on certain historical suggestions. He said : 

" I am not skilled in the diplomatic history of this country, but I think it will be found 
to be a fact that Spain, our earliest ally, has maintained her treaty stipulations of peace, 
amity, good will, and friendship with us, from the time when, in 1778, she extended to 
us the right hand of friendship, when we were struggling for a name and a place in the 
family of nations. Then, in our feebleness, in our infancy, in our poverty, nay, in our very 
destitution, when we had neither a name to live, nor an arm to defend ourselves with, she 
came to our aid ; she lent us money and men and ships, and she rendered us service when 
it was needed ; and from that day to this, Spain has maintained, in unbroken succession,, the 
position and the relation of 'an ally and a friend." 

That Spain had either money, or men, or ships to lend any one, in 17*78, is a 
fact rather difficult to be established ; certain it is that she lent us none, nor did 
she ever assist us in any manner. 

Our first treaty with her was on the 27th of October, 1795, long after we had 
achieved independence, and even established our present form of Government, 
toward the close of Washington's second term. It was not a treaty of alliance, 
but for the settlement of boundaries between her colonies -and us, and to define 
accurately our right to navigate the Mississippi river. (Statutes at Large, vol. 8, 
p. 138.) Its twenty-first article was for indemnification of outrages which she 
had committed on our citizens. Since that time, so far as my research extends, 
our relations with her always have been of the most unsatisfactory character. 
Omitting the controversies in regard to Louisiana, until the cession of that colony 
to France, and afterwards to us, I come to the case of the Floridas, in February, 
1806, when a proposition of purchase, similar to this, was made by Congress. On 
the 15th of January, 1811, as I have shown, Congress authorized the President 
to take possession of East Florida; and on the 13th of February, 1813, to take 
possession of West Florida. On the 22d of February, 1819, those two colonies 
were ceded to us by treaty; and yet, so conspicuous was the bad faith of Spain, 
the exchange of ratifications did not occur — was delayed, in fact, by one frivolous 
pretext after another, for almost or quite two years. President Monroe was pro- 
voked to the last degree, and in his annual message of December, 1819, recom- 
mended that Congress should authorize him to take possession of the ceded terri- 
tory as though the treaty had been ratified. These facts are well narrated by Mr. 
Branch, of North Carolina, in the report of the House Committee on Foreign Af- 
fairs. He has truly depicted, also, the character of our relations with Spain for 
the last ten or twelve years : 

"Nothing can be more irritating to an independent and spirited nation, or better calcu- 
lated to precipitate collisions, than to have such vast and delicate interests as our most im- 
portant coastwise intercourse compelled to pass almost within hail of foreign fortifications, 
and to run the gauntlet of alien fleets. Hence, our relations with Spain are constantly of a 
semi-hostile character, and our Minister at Madrid can do little else than wrangle with the 
Government to which he is accredited about high-handed outrages and petty grievances 
inflicted upon our citizens, which Spanish officials in Cuba are armed with full power to 
inflict but none to redress." 

The Senator from New York (Mr. Seward) declares that a proposition to 
Spain for the cession of Cuba, will be a grave insult, and one which she must and 
will resent. He adduces, in proof, the report of certain very high-toned speeches 
of the Spanish minister and others, lately delivered in the Cortes, at Madrid. 
How such a proposition, expressed in polite language, can be construed as an in- 
sult or indignity, altogether exceeds my comprehension. It is easy for him who 
seeks an insult, at any time, to be insulted ; otherwise, the Spanish Minister has 
rendered himself quite ridiculous. An insult to propose that Spain should cede 



to us, for money, or any other consideration, a colony as remote from her, and as 
near to our boundaries, as the Island of Cuba ! It was not an insult, nor received 
as such, eleven years ago, in Mr. Polk's time. Really, sir, Spain would seem to 
have learned a new point of honor since February 22, 1819, when, she listened to 
such a proposition in regard to Florida, and even accepted it — thus pocketing the 
insult and the money together. Did Napoleon Bonaparte understand when he 
was insulted ? If so, hear Avhat Mr. Jefferson said to him : 

"I should suppose that all these considerations might, in some proper form, be brought 
into view of the Government of France. Though stated by us, it ought not to give offence; 
because we do not bring them forward as a menace, but as consequences not controllable by 
us, but inevitable from the course of things. We mention them, not as things which we de- 
sire, by any means, but as things we deprecate; and we beseech a friend to look forward 
and to prevent them for our common interests." 

Bonaparte discovered no insult in this, and felt no dishonor in ceding to us, for 
money, the whole province of Louisiana. Surely, sir, the terms of intercourse 
between him and us, half a century ago, when he was at the zenith of power and 
splendor, and we were struggling with infantile helplessness, are good enough for 
us to adopt, in present circumstances, toward the Spanish Minister, or the minister 
of any other nation. If such terms be construed into an offence, and especially 
where offence has been disclaimed, let those who would be prouder than Napo- 
leon, whether Spaniards or others, show us whereon their pride is founded. 

We are admonished, also, that Great Britain and France will not suffer us to 
acquire the Island of Cuba. Said the Senator from New York : 

"Heretofore, Spain has held the Island of Cuba in the midst of conflicts between the two 
great Powers of western Europe, England and France, liable 10 lose it to one or the other 
belligerent at any moment. To-day, England and France are not only allies, but they are 
united in the policy of maintaining Spain in the enjoyment of the Islands of Cuba and Porto 
Rico, the last remains of her once world-wide empire"!" 

Well, sir, Great Britain and France have no legitimate concern with the ques- 
tion ; their business lies chiefly on the other side of the Atlantic ; and, unless 
they are anxious for a controversy with us, they will abstain from all interference. 
If there be one maxim to which our national honor is pledged ; a maxim de- 
livered to us, time and again, by the oracles of revolutionary wisdom ; it is that 
the European system of dictation by sovereigns to each other, shall never be ex- 
tended to this continent. Whenever we yield that, under any menace or appre- 
hension, the day of our greatness will decline ; we shall have become so far cor- 
rupted by wealth, so indolent and effete, that our liberties are at the mercy of him 
who will seize them, and our republic will soon pass into history forever. 

Twenty-five years ago, on the 2d of December, 1823, President Monroe ad- 
dressed Congress in these memorable words : 

"The political system of the allied Powers is essentially different, in this respect, from that 
of America. This difference proceeds from that which exists in their respective Govern- 
ments. And to the defence of our own, which has been achieved by the loss of so much 
blood and treasure, and matured by the wisdom of their most enlightened citizens, and under 
which we have enjoyed unexampled felicity, this whole nation is devoted. We owe it, 
therefore, to candor, and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and 
those Powers, to declare that we should consider any attempt, on their part, to extend their 
system to any portion of this hemisphere, as dangerous to our peace and safety." 

These words, uttered in the time of our comparative feebleness, with no such 
elements of prosperity as now fill our gaze on every side, sufficed to deliver Mex- 
ico and Central and South America from the dominion of a European alliance. 
Will their emphatic repetition to-day deliver Central America and Mexico and 
Cuba from the dominion of a European alliance which now threatens them ? 
Alas ! sir, I know not ; but I do know that, accordingly as President Buchanan 
shall enforce at every hazard, or shall shrink from, the doctrines proclaimed by 
Mr. Monroe, in December, 1823, so will his Administration be one of the most 
glorious, or the meanest, in all the annals of our empire. 

It is quite probable that Great Britain and France will resist, even to the utter- 
most, our endeavors to acquire Cuba, or to extend our boundaries in any direc- 
tion. When I speak of France, however, I speak not of our ally in the ancient 
and famous time. That France no longer exists ; her pride and her liberties were 



11 

betrayed, together, in the very house of confidence ; while the France of which I 
now speak — the France of Louis Napoleon — like a petty German State, subsidized 
for the occasion, merely executes the designs and contributes to the grandeur of 
that monarchy which, from the earliest period, has attempted, but never before 
accomplished, her entire humiliation. With Great Britain, sir, and Great Britain 
fortified by the addition of French valor and arms, we must henceforth contend — 
a contest not only for predominance over this continent, but for predominance and 
fame throughout the world and for ages to come. The elements of an issue so 
fearful (and fearful indeed it is) have been gathering, silently and surely, ever 
since the flag of our Republic was carried in triumph to the capital of Mexico ; 
and whatever the arts of diplomacy, or how earnestly soever we consult that 
wisdom which closes its eyes to an unpleasant consequence, the issue cannot be 
avoided, nor much longer postponed. 

Of course, Mr. President, this declaration of my opinions will be received here, 
and perhaps elsewhere, as something altogether absurd. I have been a Senator 
of the United States long enough, at least, to comprehend the length and breadth 
and — not depth, but shallowness, of our present system of foreign relations. I 
know that my opinions are heterodox according to such a standard; but, what- 
ever the ridicule, or the dignified scorn, or the self-complacent rebuke — all Avhich 
I encountered in the Senate, two years ago, when speaking on the same subject — 
I abate neither jot nor tittle of what I have said. 

It is about eleven years since Great Britain commenced her present intrigues, 
encroachments," and usurpations in Central America. Seeing the United States on 
the point of acquiring California; and, thereby, a predominance over the isthmian 
routes of Mexico, Nicaragua, and New Granada, she determined to interpose, by 
mere violence, against the consummation of a destiny so natural and appropriate. 
For this purpose, having already enlarged a right, by treaty with Spain, to cut log- 
wood on the coast of Belize, in Guatemala, to a claim of territorial authority, she 
next invented or revived the tradition of some protectorate over three or four hun- 
dred savages, partly of Indian and partly of African blood, calling themselves the 
Mosquito tribe, and infesting the shores of Nicaragua toward the Caribbean sea. 
It was not merely an absurd pretext; it was in flagrant defiance of the " right of 
discovery " in virtue, of which, alone, Great Britain, as well as France and Spain, 
first asserted dominion over the American continent, and established a rule of in- 
tercourse for the aborigines and their several colonists. And yet, under such pre- 
text, in January, 1848, did Great Britain seize the mouth of the San Juan river, 
substitute the name of Greytown for that of an ancient Spanish settlement, and 
usurp control of the Nicaraguan coast frorn the boundaries of Costa Rica to those 
of Honduras. 

Nicaragua resented such usurpation, and properly called on the United States 
to maintain the doctrine announced by President Monroe in December, 1823, 
when the Holy Alliance of Europe made a similar attempt. It was an era of sin- 
gular blindness on our part ; we had no John Quincy Adams in the Department 
of State ; no Henry Clay, or Daniel Webster, in the youthful splendor of his 
genius, to command the House of Representatives. With a view to enlist us in 
her defence, Nicaragua proposed, and actually concluded, a treaty with our Min- 
ister, (Mr. Hise,) whereby an exclusive right of transit across her territories, from 
the Atlantic to the Pacific, was accorded to us. That treaty was not even sub- 
mitted to the Senate for ratification ; but, instead, the Secretary of State (Mr. 
Clayton) commenced negotiations with the British Minister here, upon the footing 
of a joint interest, and, therefore, a joint protectorate, over the isthmian routes. 
This negotiation ended in the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, the most preposterous en- 
gagement into which the United States ever entered. 

How Great Britain has observed that treaty, in spirit, letter, or effect, I need 
not here relate. We are all of opinion (and have often so said) that her conduct 
has been a persistent violation of it in every particular. And yet, sir, from year 
to year this violation progresses; until Nicaragua has been dismembered, and even 
blotted from the roll of nations. Between the Mosquitos on the one side, and 
Costa Rica, under French protection, upon the other, nothing is left to her; and 



when the Republic of Nicaragua is mentioned, in correspondence or in debate, 
we know it is a mere sound, an empty name, a mytb of no signification. A hand- 
ful of miscreants, under English and French influence, with no territorial domin- 
ion, without any power at home or abroad, are permitted, by diplomatic quackery, 
to usurp and profane the title of her that is dead. Our steamships are searched 
by British men-of-war in the very harbor of San Juan ; and we content ourselves, 
as we did at the last session, by three or four tame resolutions, and by sending a 
large fleet to Paraguay, in South America, in order to coerce an insignificant 
tyranny there. The Nicaraguan route is no longer traveled ; and, as for the route 
of Panama, our citizens have been wounded, menaced, and shamefully abused, 
without any redress, when they ventured its passage. 

The impunity with which Great Britain and France have conducted their ag- 
gressions iii Central America, since Mr. Polk left the presidential chair, now 
emboldens them to still more audacious enterprises. It is upon Mexico, at length, 
their ambition has seized. She, also, appealed to us ; and having once secured to 
our citizens, by treaty, the route across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, she had a 
just claim on us for protection against the overwhelming strength of European 
assault. _ Instead of such protection, or even a word of kindness, we suffered the 
constitutional government of Mexico to be undermined by intrigues within and 
violence without ; until now, (as the last packet informs us,) the navies of Great 
Britain and France do not scruple to blockade the ports of Vera Cruz and Tam- 
pico, in order to compel an increase of the tariff on imported merchandise. That 
Cuba will remain exempt from the operation of a scheme so long meditated, and 
so boldly pursued, is more than I can believe ; the scheme includes her, and in- 
cludes every inch of this continent, as well as of the islands adjacent. In a mo- 
ment of_ unusual jubilation, while the "holy alliance " of Great Britain and France 
was urging Russia to the brink of ruin, a British Secretary of State assured a faith- 
ful Parliament that other, and ulterior, and even more important, affairs were in 
contemplation. I allude, sir, to the speech of Lord Clarendon, in which he declared : 

"The union between the two Governments has not been confined to the Eastern question. 
The happy accord and good understanding between France and England, have been extend- 
ed beyond the Eastern policy to the policy affecting all parts of the world; and I am heartily 
rejoiced to say, that there is no portion of the two hemispheres with regard to which the 
policy of the two countries, however heretofore antagonistic, is not now in entire har- 
mony." 

To be sure, this had no relation to us — not the slightest ! Was not our amia- 
ble Minister so assured, in terms at once condescending and confidential ? What 
else it could mean, or to whom be applied, Mr. Dallas did not ascertain ; but, cer- 
tainly, to such as are unskilled in diplomatic intercourse, looking at the events of 
Central America and Mexico since that time, it would seem as if the United States 
were about to become another Sebastopol, and beleaguered on every side. 

As I have no confidence in the " explanations " vouchsafed to us with regard to 
Lord Clarendon's speech, I expect and believe that any serious attempt on our 
part to acquire Cuba, by negotiation or otherwise, will be obstructed. The Sena- 
tor from New York has told us the truth for once; and we must either assert our 
independence, our right to control the destinies of this continent, free of all do- 
mination or dictation by Great Britain, or France, or any other European Power, or 
else abandon ourselves to the rank of Sardinia, Portugal, and the German States. 
We are to be somebody, or nobody, in the world ; and, for one, I would as lief 
decide that in Cuba as upon any other spot of earth. Let us, at all events, know 
the worst; and if our time of abasement has arrived, let us, with what composure 
we can, kiss the feet of our masters, and teach our children to do the same. 

I might well be asked, entertaining such opinions, why vote for the bill now 
proposed ? Simply, sir, because it can do no harm ; and if, perchance, the Presi- 
dent should be able to acquire Cuba in this manner, I would not only feel, but 
would publicly express, more satisfaction than to see my own apprehensions realized. 
As to the objections of detail urged by the Senator from New York, some days 
since, I esteem them of very little importance. The bill provides an appropriation 
of $30,000,000 to be paid for a cession of the island, with its dependencies; which 
amount is to be raised by a loan at five per cent., and so much as may be neces- 



13 

sary, paid whenever the treaty shall have been ratified by Spain. If the bill 
should be successful, therefore, it will be an appropriation of money, by laiv, from 
the Treasury of the United States, in strict accordance with the Constitution, and 
for an object as clearly and exactly defined as any object specified in our annual 
appropriation bills. The law is to be executed, of course, by the President of the 
United States, as all other laws are required to be executed ; and the money ex- 
pended through the Department of State, or some of our ministers abroad, as other 
appropriations for like purposes always have been, and always must be, expended. 
The outlines of the bill are in pursuance of three famous acts of our legislation — 
the act of February 26, 1803, under which Louisiana was purchased; the act of 
February 13, 1806, intended for the case of Florida; and the act of March 3, 
1847, which led to the acquisition of New Mexico and California. 

An act making provision for the expenses attending the intercourse between the United 

States and foreign nations. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and Home of Representatives of the United States of America 
in Congress assembled, That a sum of $2,000,000, in addition to the provision heretofore made, 
be, and the same is hereby, appropriated for the purpose of defraying any extraordinary ex- 
penses which may be incurred in the intercourse between the United States and foreign 
nations, to be paid out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, and to be 
applied under the direction of the President of the United States, who shall cause an account 
of the expenditure thereof to be laid before Congress, as soon as may be. 

Approved, February 26, 1803. 

Au act making provision for defraying any extraordinary expenses attending the intercourse 
between the United States and foreign nations. 

Be it enacted, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America 
in Congress assembled, That, a sum of $2,000,000 be, and the same is hereby, appropriated 
towards defraying any extraordinary expenses which may be incurred in the intercourse 
between the United States and foreign nations, to be paid out of any money in (lie Treasury 
not otherwise appropriated, and to be applied under the direction of the President of the 
United States who shall cause an account thereof to be laid before Congress as soon as 
may be. 

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted. That the President of the United States be, and hereby 
is, authorized, if necessary, to borrow the said sum, or any part thereof, in behalf of the 
United States, at a rate of interest not exceeding six per centum per annum, redeemable at 
the will of the Congress of the United States. And it shall be lawful for the Bank of the 
United States to lend the whole, or any part of the same. 

Sec. 3. And be it further en-acted, That so much as may be necessary of the surplus of the 
duties on imports and tonnage, beyond the permanent appropriation heretofore charged upon 
them, by law, shall be, and hereby is, pledged and appropriated for the payment of the in- 
terest and reimbursements of the principal, of all such moneys as may be borrowed in pur- 
suance of this act, according to the terms and conditions on which the loan or loans may be 
effected. Approved, February 13, 1806. 

An act making further appropriation to bring the existing war with Mexico to a speedy and 

honorable conclusion. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United Stales of America 
in Cong-ess assembled, That, whereas a state of war now exists between the United States 
and the Republic of Mexico, which it is desirable should be speedily terminated upon terms 
just and honorable to both nations; and whereas assurances have heretofore been given to 
the Government of Mexico that it was the desire of the President to settle all questions 
between the two countries on. the most liberal and satisfactory terms, according to the rights 
of each and the mutual interests and security of the two countries; and whereas the Presi- 
dent may be able to conclude a treaty of peace with the Republic of Mexico prior to the next 
session of Congress, if means for that object are at his disposal ; and whereas in the adjust- 
ment of so many complicated questions as now exist between the two countries, it may 
possibly happen that an expenditure of money will be called for by stipulations of any treaty 
which may be entered into; therefore, the sum of §3,000,000 be, and the same is hereby, 
appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to enable the 
President to conclude a treaty of peace, limits, and boundaries with the Republic of Mexico, 
to be used by him in the event that said treaty, when signed by the authorized agents of the 
two Governments, and duly ratified by Mexico, shall call for the expenditure of the same or 
any part thereof; full and accurate accounts fur which expenditure shall be by him trans- 
mitted to Congress at as early a day as practicable. Approved, March 3, 1847. 

Two of these acts, it will be observed, were in the time of President Jefferson — cer- 
tainly as little disposed as any President ever was, or ever will g be, to encroach on the 
legislative department, or tolerate any increase of Executive power and influence. 



14 

Indeed, sir, until now, our most eminent statesmen do not seem to have dis- 
covered that such a bill confers on the President any control over the Treasury, 
or any undue control over the conduct of our foreign relations. I am willing 
to err (if it be an error) with them ; although, certainly, whatever amendment can 
be suggested by the Senator from New York, or any one else, to restrain this appro- 
priation of money to the object intended, or otherwise guard against an abuse or 
misemployment of the powers to be conferred, will receive my vote and assistance. 

As to the substitute proposed by the Senators from New York and Vermont, as 
a minority of the Committee on Foreign Relations, it does not deserve much com- 
ment. The first section requires the President to communicate to the Senate, at 
the beginning of the next session, "if in his opinion not incompatible with the 
public interest," the condition of our relations with Spain, at that time, as well as 
the condition of the Treasury, the Army, and the Navy. The second section 
authorizes him to convene the Senate, or Congress, " in extraordinary session," 
whenever he may consider that advisable. Inasmuch as all these duties or powers 
have been expressly confided to the President by the Constitution, our recapitula- 
tion of them, in a statute, would be as idle and even as ludicrous, as one could 
well imagine. 

I am content to fortify the President with the means and the powers which he 
now asks at our hands. No mischief can ensue, as I have said, in case of failure ; 
because, without a treaty for the cession of Cuba, no money is to be paid, or even 
borrowed, inasmuch as none will be required. 

It is said, however, that we thus commit ourselves, in advance, to the rati- 
fication of whatever treaty the President may negotiate. I think not. Spain 
knows, or will know, quite as well as we, that the treaty must be ratified according 
to the requirements of our Constitution, or else be wholly inoperative. She ratified 
the treaty of February 22, 1819, with modifications; and these were afterwards 
accepted by us. 

There is no "blank draft" on the Treasury — no pledge or guaranty for the pay- 
ment of one dime beyond $30,000,000 in this bill; and the entire treaty will be 
subject to ratification, amendment, or rejection, by the Senate, as all other treaties 
are. If the President should stipulate for a larger consideration to Spain, whether 
in money or otherwise, than two-thirds of the Senate believe to be advantageous, 
in the circumstances, that will end the treaty, or lead to further negotiation. 

It is suggested, also, that we will forfeit the $30,000,000 in case we do not rat- 
ify the treaty; but such an objection, if ever so valid, must have applied as well 
to all past negotiations of this character. I do not see, for my own part, how a 
forfeiture can rightfully be predicated of such a case; but as Spain has always 
been dilatory in the payment of her debts, I assume that we may lose the whole 
amount paid in advance, (whether $30,000,000 or less,) if the treaty be not rati- 
fied on our side. The amount is a large one, and particularly in the financial em- 
barrassment which has lately overtaken us. I underrate none of these considera- 
tions ; but, after all, so essential do I consider the acquisition of Cuba to our pros- 
perity — so anxious am I to avoid the difficulties which gather, from day to day, 
over the whole subject; urging us steadily toward a rupture with Great Britain 
and France, as well as with Spain ; that I will take any reasonable risk, or stretch 
the credit of the United States to any reasonable extent, rather than to suffer one 
more year to elapse without some definite, and, as I fervently hope, some decisive 
action. I do think, however, the bill should contain a limitation as to the amount 
for which the President may stipulate; or rather, a provision that no payment 
shall be made in advance of ratification by both parties, unless the whole amount 
stipulated be within a certain maximum. I would specify as such maximum 
$130,000,000, or, at farthest, $150,000,000. 

The Senator from New York objects to the acquisition of Cuba, politically, be- 
cause that island is now inhabited, and by a people, as he says, " different entirely 
from the citizens of the United States ; different in language, different in race, 
different in habits, different in manners, different in customs, and radically differ- 
ent in religion." What the Senator means by a difference in race, I do not com- 
prehend. The descendants of the Spaniard, in America, are like the rest of us ; 



15 

they came of our stock, and are admitted, every day, under our laws of naturali- 
zation, to the rights and privileges of native-born citizens. All the nations of Eu- 
rope had a common origin; and the Caucasian race, notwithstanding its diversi- 
ties of language, habits, manners, customs, and religion, is, at last, the same. Its 
unitv is innate, and its diversity an affair of accident or circumstance ; but when 
the Senator from New York and his associates, endeavor to blend the African 
with the Caucasia^ upon terms of social or political equality, then, to be sure, do 
confusion and degradation threaten us. There is no more diversity of race be- 
tween the people of the United States and the people of Cuba, nor any more di- 
versity of language, or habits, or manners, or customs, or religion, than the Sena- 
tor may behold to-day in the great city which he represents. The people of Cuba 
are such as Louisiana, and Florida, and Texas, and New Mexico, and California, 
contained at their respective periods of annexation ; and, so far from the least 
difficulty, has not the" genius of our Federal system been admirably proved and 
illustrated in each instance ? 

But the Senator desires to be told "what institutions of. justice, of freedom, of 
religion, and public worship,"' will obtain in the Island of Cuba after it shall have 
been annexed to the United State.-. I answer, once for all, snob " institutions," 
exactly, consistent with the Constitution of the United States, as the people of 
Cuba wish; thev shall be,- so far as I am concerned, upon an equal footing with 
the people ©folhef States; 

The Senator from Wisconsin (Mr. Doolittle) announced to us yesterday, as 
the programme of the modern and self-styled Republican party, that the tropical 
zone of this continent should be for the negro, and only its temperate zone for the 
white man. I am really obliged to the Senator for so honest a proclamation ; 
having always been convinced that the party of his attachment, upon which he 
has lavished as many affectionate caresses and epithets as Sancho Panza could 
have suggested, intends that Cuba and Mexico, and Centra: America, and, if pos- 
sible, our own southern States, shall be reduced to the miserable condition of 
Havti and Jamaica. But, sir, I admonish the Senator that his colored friends will 
not" be able to retain the empire which he so generously, and without any cost to 
himself, would thus srive them. In Jamaica, it appears, they are becoming ex- 
tinct from sheer indolence ; while in Havti, at the last advices, the Emperor Sou- 
louque was r - ;■ to, or from, very urgent business. 

There is a decisive objection, beside this, to the Senators magnificent scheme, 
an objection which even Commodore Paulding cannot assist him to remove. It is, 
that the Atlantic shores of our continent have been found so much colder than 
Europe, or Asia, o: Africa, between the same parallels. We are now assembled, 
at "Washington eitv. almost in the latitude of Lisbon and Palermo and Corinth 
and Athens and the classic fields of Asia Minor, but the climate here is colder by 
several d egsefcs. Indeed, sir, no nation of less energy than our own, or the nation 
whence most of us derive our lineage, could have so long maintained the arts of 
civilization in such inclement regions as Canada, and the northern British pro- 
vinces. That achievement, alone, entitles the Anglo-Saxon blood to universal ad- 
miration. Does the Senator imagine, then, that he can devote seas and shores, 
in America, as mild and beautiful as the ancient Mediterranean and the gardens 
which surround it,' to the exclusive dominion of negroes; driving the white man 
to sr gg . : rev^r, with the ice-bound streams, the pathless snow -drifts, or any 
of th - ~ : would encompass and chill our enterprise ? 

The Senator from New Hampshire complains that our acquisitions tend south- 
ward and stward, but never toward the Arctic climes. I am not aware of any 
instance in which t ; <:- United States declined territory North or East of our pres- 
ent po-s essi< s. The Sena/tor complained, especially, that the A -sh burton treaty 
of 1842, alienated a portion of the State -of -Maine ■ but T — er heard a, com- 
plaint from Maine upon the subject nor from any of her citizens. They consent- 
ed to it and, I believe, on very ample consideration. They did not even panse to 
argue whether they had or had not been insulted. That treaty was negotiated 
by Daniel Webster ; and the opposition to its ratification, by the Senate, was al- 
together from the Democratic party. And so in respect to the treaty which es- 



16 

tablished our northwestern boundary upon the forty-ninth degree of latitude. I 
cannot tell whether the Senator himself voted for or against the ratification of 
that; but he knows that all the negative votes (unless, perchance, his own) were 
cast by Democratic Senators. 

Canada has never been restrained from annexation by us, but by the wise con- 
cessions, time and again, of the British Government. The contrast of her case 
and the case of Cuba, is very remarkable; the one enjoying a right of local legis- 
lation, and an executive dependent on the Legislature for existence ; while the 
other is subject to the arbitrary decrees of a Captain General, appointed by the 
Court at Madrid, and maintained in power by an army of twenty-five thousand 
men. Canada has likewise enjoyed, of late years, the advantage of reciprocal 
free trade with the United States ; while Cuba, as I have shown, is deprived of 
all the advantages of her position, and devoted entirely to Spanish exaction or 
convenience. Whether the concessions of Great Britain will, or will not, be suffi- 
cient, hereafter, to retain the affections of the Canadian people, is a question too 
remote for me to consider ; but, as soon as they shall ask admission into our 
Union, or fall under oppression like that of Cuba, the Senator from New Hamp- 
shire will find himself outstripped in zeal by those who represent the Democratic 
party here. 

Several Senators on the other side, and the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. 
Wilson) among them, announce great anxiety for the acquisition of Cuba, but 
object, most vehemently, to the means now proposed. I have already expressed 
a serious doubt whether the means will prove sufficient; but certainly, sir, they 
are such means, and none other, as did suffice in the case of every acquisition (ex- 
cept Texas) heretofore made. Why should those who profess a desire for the 
annexation of Cuba, on either side of the Senate, scruple at an experiment, (if 
such you call it,) which has always proved successful? lean imagine but one 
reason — that reason which, from the days of Louisiana to the present hour, has 
enabled the Democratic party to recover from any mistake, or defeat, or disaster — 
I mean, sir, the blindness of opposition. It is my deliberate opinion that the ■ 
people of the United States are, almost unanimously, in favor of the acquisition of 
Cuba; and that party which, for the sake of any supposed advantage, nearly at 
hand, shall postpone so vast a question, or cavil at mere particulars, or attempt 
the disguise of collateral arguments and pretences, will effectually seal its own 
destruction. 

Mr. President, the expansion of our Federal system, as one emergency after 
another shall require, is the law of our development; it is the sign of our national 
vitality ; the pledge of our national endurance. This proud sentiment, although 
imperfectly revealed, and perhaps never expressed, animates the heart of the 
humblest pioneer now braving the wrath of the savage or the hardships of the 
wilderness on our westernmost border ; it is a theme of glory to boyhood, to youth 
treading the paths of temptation, to men in every pursuit — the capitalist and the 
laborer, the merchant, the artisan, the scholar, the soldier, the sailor— to all who 
reverence their country and their country's renown. Indeed, sir, I can imagine 
no spectacle more grateful to an American citizen, at home or abroad, than the 
contemplation of that splendid procession across our continent within the last 
sixty years. Commencing with feeble settlements on the bays, inlets, and tribu- 
taries of the Atlantic ocean ; thence to the summits deemed almost impassable, 
and beyond these, to the banks of a river extending from the Gulf of Mexico north- 
ward to the region of the lakes, and swollen at every degree by the floods gather- 
ed as well in the Alleghanies as in the Rocky Mountains — itself, therefore, a com- 
plete emblem of UNION to all — thence, over prairies of marvelous magnificence, ' 
to the fastness and the desert ; turning from which, at length, to seek more hospi- 
table and shorter paths, by the Isthmus, we have carried our name, our watch- 
words, and our ensign, to the Golden Gate, 'where California, with her snowcapped 
diadem, sits virgin empress of the seas. 

May it be, sir, that when our sons have searched the uttermost corners of the 
earth, and overcome every other obstacle, their virtue and love of liberty and de- 
votion to the example of our great fathers, will not require them to despise us, al- 
together, as men unworthy of the fortunes to which we were called ! 



